Project description

The Marine Biodiversity Hub project is a collaborative research program funded by the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts through the Commonwealth Environment Research Facilities (CERF) program. The project will provide new data, information and tools to support the identification, assessment, conservation and sustainable use of Australia's marine assets.
Project partners are the University of Tasmania , CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research , Australian Institute of Marine Science and the Museum of Victoria. Key stakeholders include the Australian Fisheries Management, Authority , the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association , the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts , the Commonwealth Fisheries Association, the Sustainable Tourism CRC and the World Wildlife Fund for Nature.
For the Geoscience Australia project team, the project involves working with project partners and stakeholders to:

• collate existing useful marine physical and biological datasets for selected areas of Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone and strategically collect new data;
• analyse this data to develop reliable physical surrogates of benthic habitats and biological communities which can be used to predict patterns of biodiversity in the Australian marine jurisdiction; and
• effectively communicate the results of this research, including access to products and datasets.

Project outcome

Increased availability and use of biodiversity information and resources in the management of Australia's marine biodiversity.

Project outputs

Development of a detailed work plan for a Surrogate’s Project which will be led by Geoscience Australia and involve extensive collaboration with projects involving staff from more than one partner organisation. Additionally, Geoscience Australia will work closely with partners to develop the work plan for the Biodiversity and Prediction Projects, in which our staff will participate. This output includes the planning of field surveys with the University of Tasmania, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the University of Wollongong. Stakeholder input will be sought in the planning process to ensure the relevance and uptake of the research results.
Key physical, oceanographic and biological datasets will be established for further analysis and integration. This will be undertaken in collaboration with the Prediction Project based at CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research. New data will be collected on field surveys with the University of Tasmania and the University of Wollongong to fill information gaps.
Presentation of the results of the first year's work will be made by Geoscience Australia project staff at the Annual Hub Workshop. The aim of the workshop is to review plans and progress as well as assist in the development, communication and uptake of marine conservation tools among researchers, managers and other stakeholder groups.